Readings - First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah 
1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 
1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 
1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 
1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 
1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 
1:7 Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 
1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 
1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, [and] we should have been like unto Gomorrah. 
1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 
1:11 To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 
1:12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. 
1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 
1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Advent Links 2009

Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent, a season of preparation. For those who need a primer, there are a number of great websites. Here are a few:

This link at Catholic Online explains Advent from a traditional Catholic perspective - with some lovely ideas for how to share this special time with your family.

Catholic Education Resource Center

Beliefnet's Interactive Advent Calendar

American Catholic's Advent FAQ

The Meaning of the Advent Wreath

Keeping Christmas Preparation in Perspective

My family has simplified Christmas over the years, and the season requires some planning to keep it simple.

Please keep in mind that I am no saint - I have wrestled with my own holiday demons, including envy and avarice, and while they may be in abeyance at this moment, I know that doesn't mean I can sit back and assume they will not creep back into my life.

Choosing simplicity means making choices against clutter and chaos and materialism every day - some days it seems like I am making these choices every moment.

Choosing simplicity is a lifestyle that brings me a great deal of peace, as I allow myself to live differently, to become more true to myself and less caught up in what Madison Avenue is selling this week - but trying doesn't always mean I am successful. That is one of the reasons I write - to remind myself about my goals and to hold myself accountable...

My focus is on a spiritual Christmas. After all, Christmas is a religious High Holy Day, not a secular celebration.

Christmas is the birth of Hope, the Light shining in the darkness. 

Christmas is not about maxing out credit cards, competitive gifting, or whining children begging for everything they see in the commercials.

Altho Santa can have an appropriate place in the Christmas celebration (and does in our home), he should not be allowed as an excuse for shopaholic behavior and he does not replace Jesus as the focal point of Christmas.

One of my top tips for sanity at the holidays is turning off all television. 

We no longer have television at all in our home, so the sheer volume of toy/junk ads aimed at our nation's children always surprises me when I am visiting others. Turning off the telly helps to deflect this media blitz, and to stop the annoying "gimmes" that sp many children develop.

Our Advent wreath and our creche come out the first Sunday of Advent, so that the spiritual preparation for the season stays foremost in our minds. Lighting the candles, reflecting upon the theme of the week, and saying a short prayer helps to focus anticipation. Keeping the "Reason for the Season" in its proper role helps to keep rampant materialism and consumerism at bay.

I usually buy a Christmas tree the Second or Third Sunday of Advent, and decorate it with lights, ribbons, and simple ornaments. We play favorite carols at the piano or on iTunes, and  enjoy the pretty display. Some years, when we have small tots expected, I place pieces from my Santa Village under the tree - which creates an effect of a snowy mountain landscape.

How do you keep Christmas in perspective?

Lincoln Proclamation of Thanksgiving, 1863

A PROCLAMATION
by the President of the United States of America

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony wherof I have herunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[Signed]A. Lincoln

Washington Proclamation of Thanksgiving, 1789

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wife, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Proclamation of Thanksgiving, 1782

STATE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE
IN COMMITTEE of SAFETY
EXETER, November 1, 1782

ORDERED, THAT the following Proclamation for a general THANKSGIVING on the twenty-eighth day of November instant, received from the honorable Continental Congress, be forthwith printed, and sent to the several worshipping Assemblies in this State, to whom it is recommended religiously to observe said day, and to abstain from all servile labour thereon.
M. WEARE, President.

By the United States in Congress assembled

PROCLAMATION

IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States: Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.

JOHN HANSON, President
Charles Thomson, Secretary

Thanksgiving Proclamation, June 20, 1676 - Charlestown, MA

The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and soulds as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving Proclamation, December 4, 1619 - Berkeley Plantation, VA

Captain John Woodlief and the 38 settlers who arrived on the banks of the James River at Berkeley Hundred ordained the first Sunday of November to be a day of Thanksgiving in perpetuity:

"Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

In Flanders Fields, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

In Remembrance

"And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again."

On this day, Armistice Day, we honor fallen warriors. We honor the blood sacrifice that millions of men, women and children made during "The Great War" - also known as "The War to End All Wars". This day was created as a day of remembrance in the US by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and then extended permanently by an Act of Congress in 1938 as "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1954, Congress amended the Act, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans - to honor all Veterans of all wars. And in the US today, we honor those who chose to serve and die in the wars of several generations: World Wars 1 and 2, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq...

And today in Paris, for the very first time since that Armistice in 1918, the leaders of France and Germany came together to honor the moment the guns were silenced - to lay wreaths for the dead, to mourn the horror and destruction their two countries shared, "to jointly commemorate the suffering and to honor the memory of the combatants and celebrate the peace of which they dreamed at the bottom of their trenches."

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “I know that what has gone before cannot be erased. But there is a power, a power which helps us and which can help us bear what has passed: reconciliation.”

Let there be Peace on Earth!

The Little Good Folk, by Kathleen Foyle

The Faeries went from the world dear
Because men's hearts grew cold

And only the eyes of children see
What is hidden from the old.

And only the magic of love dear
Can ever turn the key

That unlocks the gates of Faerieland
To set the Sidhe folk free.

A Merry Heart

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. - Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. - Proverbs 15:13

These are but two references to cheerfulness or merry hearts in the Bible, and they have been touchstones for me over the past few years as I continue to learn to "choose cheerfulness". I very firmly believe that every moment of every day we make choices, and those choices have rippling effects through-out our own lives and the lives of those we interact with - for good or for ill.

While I cannot control what others do, in most cases I can decide how I will respond. Will I pout or lash back after a curt word from a loved one? or will I remember his pain and choose compassion - and a long walk! As I grow older, I am leaning more towards the long walks... and leaning on a Grace that is bigger and stronger than I.